Viewers can now ask to join your Facebook Live

Here’s the replay of Monday 25 September’s The #SocialMediaShow which was broadcast live via my Facebook Profile from Cardiff, Wales. I’m also doing a 5 minute version of the show over on LinkedIn called #SocialMedia5 which you can watch here. This week we have 24 social media news stories with my insights in italics plus the usual features – Headline, Question Time, Tip Of The Tip, Tools Talk, Number of the Week plus a news story from the world of social media with And Finally.

1. Facebook has opened a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) research facility in Montreal. Staff there will join more than 100 scientists across Menlo Park (Facebook’s HQ), New York, and Paris in working to advance the field of artificial intelligence. Facebook is betting big on AI.
2. Facebook is testing muting of Group Members. Useful.
3. Facebook is rumoured to be testing custom reactions. Could prove popular with brands.
4. Facebook are rolling out link to Instagram in mobile apps. This option appears just below the link to your personal profile in Facebook’s app, and above the links to any Facebook Pages you may manage. This will lead to greater use of Instagram by existing members.
5. Facebook is also trialling a link to WhatsApp on the Android in the same way as for Instagram.
6. If you type “Rad” in Comments you can soon expect to see an animated burst of likes that are shot upward like rockets across the screen. Another visual change.
7. Active status is being shown on some profiles ins the form of ‘Active’ or ‘Active 1m ago’. A ‘borrowed feature’ from MySpace.

FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS NEWS

8. Advertisers are now better placed to re-engage their offline audiences on Facebook. These updates include the ability to build custom audiences from offline conversion event sets entirely comprised of people who have previously purchased offline and store visits reporting based on location service data from customers’ mobile phone. Great news for retailers and other business venue owners.
9. Facebook are introducing new measurement solutions that will enable advertisers to see the impact of their ad campaigns on both Facebook and TV, as well as the incremental impact of both platforms when used together. One for brands.
10. John Lewis became the first UK brand to use 360 degree photos in an ad last week. Expect to see more of this.
11. A few of the Facebook Pages I work with have had free ad credit offers pop up. They are temporary so grab them when you can.

FACEBOOK LIVE NEWS

12. Viewers of Facebook Live shows can now request to join a broadcast via a new button beneath broadcast. This follows on from the ‘Live with friends’ feature that appeared on my app this week. Great news for broadcasters wanting to do ‘split screen shows’ such as interviews. If you’d like to come on a future #SocialMediaShow to talk about your businesses’ use of social media, please let me know.

FACEBOOK MESSENGER NEWS

13. There have been issues with the Facebook Messenger App following the iOS 11 update.
14. The time since last active on Messenger is being shown on some iOS apps.
15. Messenger Day now boasts over 70 million daily users. Doesn’t seem popular with my friends. Not sure why we need Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories and Messenger Day?

INSTAGRAM NEWS

16. You can now add filters and masks in Instagram Live video.
17. You can now add a visual backdrop to direct messages on Android app, either a background colour or a photo. Coming soon to iOS.

LINKEDIN NEWS
18. LinkedIn video upload is now available via desktop. At least for me it is 🙂
19. LinkedIn Ireland officially opened a €85m high-spec office building in Dublin 2, the group’s only piece of real estate outside the US.

TWITTER NEWS
20. There’s a new Popular Articles tab that highlights the top news items currently being shared or engaged with by people you follow. Find it under Search.
21. Twitter Lite app has been launched as an experiment and can be used on 2G and 3G networks. It includes all of the core features of the main app. One nice option is the ability to switch to a “media-free” mode in which users must explicitly indicate that they want particular images and videos to download. Lite is a popular social network flavour right now.
22. You can now tweet using your voice. I’ve setup an ifttt.com applet using Twitter and Google Assistant. You can just say “OK Google”, then “Tweet” then your message.

PINTEREST NEWS
23. 5,000 new interest categories on Ads. Great news for advertisers on Pinterest.
24. You can now drag and drop pins straight into Pinterest using Ipad split screen on iOS 11. Cool.

Tip Of The Week: Try adding the new “Send message” button to your Facebook posts to encourage questions and conversations with your customers. You’ll need to add an image or a video to enable this option. Ask me for help on this.Tools Talk:quuu.co content curation tool.Number Of The Week: 2 numbers this week – 80% of respondents used Facebook for marketing purposes, while a little more than half (51%) turned to Twitter according to last week’s G2 Crowd’s poll in US amongst small business owners.

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Questions? Need help with social media?

For more information about how we can help with your social media efforts including other social media training options please call me, Jonathan, on 029 2078 9139. Alternatively you can email, tweet or message via Facebook. To receive a weekly reminder about The #SocialMediaShow, click the Send to Messenger button below:

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